On the highway, a Pakistani truck shines bright from half a mile. The theme and motifs are too familiar. Little wonder then Pakistani trucks and well decorated buses have found a bunch of fans in the western world as well. It’s another thing Islamabad hasn’t yet GI-tagged the truck art as yet. Best it does that before some other country files that claim.
Most discussions and media coverage about truck art revolves around how much it costs, and it does cost much – anywhere between 9 to 16 thousand dollars which is multiple times the national per capita income. Or, those discussions revolve around how ‘beautiful’, ‘cute’, ‘cultural’ the art is. Some even comment on how the art is dying (due to lack of money or artists), or making artists blind due to close encounters with crude paint material without any safety measures.
One interesting perspective recently published by Jamal Elias, professor of Religious Studies at University of Pennsylvania, talks about the politics of truck art. His chapter is titled “The politics of Pashtun and Punjabi truck decoration”, in the book called “Under the drones: modern lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands published by Harvard University Press.
In that chapter Jamal highlights how, Kashmir, military leadership (notably Ayub and Zia), Nishan-e-Haider awarded martyrs and Abdul Qadeer Khan are the dominating themes in Pakistan’s truck art. You know that central figure that sits pretty on the middle part of a truck’s backside. Jamal also highlights a sense of pan-Islamism that reflects through the truck art: for example, through pictures of Bin Laden or even Saddam Hussain – the latter became a prominent feature after the Gulf War.
Political leaders are not commonly found on truck arts, although Jamal highlights that Zulfiqaur Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto are most the frequent among those few political leaders featured in truck art; albeit there are a few tribal leaders (who are politicians by the power of their tribe) who are often featured on trucks that belong to his town or province. No other national politician comes close to the Bhuttos. Not even Imran Khan, according to this column’s observation, though among non-military Pashtuns Shahid Afridi, the cricketer, is arguably a more common sight on the truck.
Interestingly, Jinnah is not a common sight on truck art; but Iqbal is, Jamal notes. The animals featuring on truck art mirror important religious reflections. The horse – reflecting burraq of the Prophet’s ascent – or the fairy, according to alternate interpretations of the same. Or Iqbal’s shaheen; the shahbaz of Sufi Shahbaz. In terms of text that adorns the trucks, the dominating themes are also religion, mysticism, folklore, relationship with parents (notably mother), neighbours, highway nostalgia, an estranged lover, or some witty couplets.
The kind of study Jamal has conducted falls in the science of symbolism, and he notes there could be multiple possible meaning into play here. But there is no doubt that military; pan Islamism; religion and Sufism, and jihad rule at least the trucking section of the population.
These ideas become reinforcers as well. Since trucks are carriers of the image across lengths and breaths of the country, they become conversation starters and even if they don’t, they subtly prime the people. Those who study culture, social psychology and related affairs in Pakistan, would surely find out that ‘ma ki dua, jannat ki hawa’ found abundantly on trucks and buses deeply influence the relationship of children with their mothers in Pakistan.
In light of all this, this column proposes the development community to at least explore ways to use the truck art for subtly priming the society in so as far gender, education, health, and climate change issues is concerned. But ‘subtle priming’ being the operative word here. And no corporate propaganda to sell FMCG products please! Tinkering with art with messages on cross-country 16-wheelers is acceptable for piecemeal social engineering but not acceptable for selling FMCG products.
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